Random thoughts from a few cantankerous American physicians. All contributors are board certified. Various specialties are represented here. I do not know where this will lead but hope it will at least be an enjoyable read. All of the names mentioned in this blog are pseudonyms, the ages have been changed, and in half the cases the gender as well. All photographs are published with patient consent or are digitally altered to preserve anonymity. Trust us, we're doctors.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

My name's Howard J. Turkstra. I'm from Kansas City. My hobbies are fast cars and fast women. Because... That's why guys in my car club call me "The Cruiser." I joined the Army because my father and my brother were in the Army. I thought I'd better join before I got drafted.

Son, there ain't no draft no more.

There was one?

or this...

I have to laugh... because I've often asked myself... my foe, my enemy, is an animal. In order to conquer him... l have to think like an animal and whenever possible... to look like one. I've got to get inside this dude's pelt and crawl around for a few days. Who is the gopher's ally? His friend? The harmless squirrel and the friendly rabbit. I'm going to use you guys to do my dirty work for me. All right, show yourself, little varmint! If you've got the guts! Son of a bitch.

here's the deal. algore reminds me of the characters focused by these two movie quotes. guys, you are all over it. ladies? do you know who al gore reminds me of? the answer 'howard j. turkstra' or 'the cruiser' doesn't count. character, movie, and why that character is like algore.

Please. You're a doctor; you should understand statistics better than that. If you see a little old lady in the ER who is concerned about her asymptomatic elevated BP of 190/120, usually 145/80, and the BP goes back down spontaneously, do you leap to put her on nipride? Of course not -- it's just a blip in a long-term trend, statistical noise.

Same thing.

Climate Change isn't just global warming, though that's a big feature of it. Climate change will involve more dramatic oscillations, more extreme weather, more catastrophic storms, and shifting weather patterns. Some arid places will become wet; some wet places will dry out.

So one cold year doesn't "wipe out" 50 years of warming any more than one heavy snowfall will reconstitute the glaciers.

I didn't get the movie references either, though I loved Bill Murray in Caddyshack. When I was in high school I was nicknamed "the dalai lama" due to his classic monologue. Good times...

All global warming alarmists are pussies, tree huggers, and economic solcialists who want to forceably level the playing field by punishing the west (carbon offset, I got your carbon offset right here) and if you try to type a rebuttal to that, it will prove you are one, or all, of those three. The f**king SUN and solar flares and wind have dramatically altered the Earth's climate for MILLIONS of years (solar wind can be felt as far as Pluto) and all you narcissistic left wing wack jobs have to do is stare directly at it to see how warm it is. OK, now go stare directly at the sun for 1 hour.

Here's an article about the sun and recent climate change related to solar flares and sun activity in the last half of the 20th century- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ray-of-hope-can-the-sun-save-us-from-global-warming-762878.html

Still throws man into the mix, unfortunately, but gives the sun its due.

dear shadowfax, you are a doctor, you should recognize drug seeking when you see it.

ee: half right, it was stripes but there was a character named the cruiser, you got the reference.

the second quote was bill murray in caddyshack.

both characters remind me of dr al gore, i mean, al gore, doctor of, well, alarmism i guess, who wouldn't know a solar flare if it were harnessed to heat his 10000 foot mansion.

oh, and shadowfax, i do believe in climate change. it was snowing yesterday, it's sunny today. last winter was warmer than this one. also, this morning there was widely scattered dark, i watched it ease into a strange mix of dark and light, and now, fuck! the sun is out. i'm thinking in about 7 hours the dark will return but need to check with al gore to find out.

The fact that shadowfax did not get the quotes completely negates any commentary from him.

For the sake of argument let's accept the following: climate change / global warming is real and is caused by increasing atmospheric CO2 which is caused by man burning fossil fuels. Again, I am assuming these as givens FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT; the accuracy of these assumptions is, of course, debatable.

Given these assumptions, here are the predictions of Shadowfax types: 1. hurricanes and flooding will become more destructive. 2. sea level will rise. 3. There will be an increase in heat related deaths. 4. Some areas will become drier, some wetter. 5. Certain species will die out (polar bears are the favorite examples).

There are certainly more predictions but these are some main ones. The apocalyptic tone of the predictions by the Gore clones is perfectly captured by Shadowfax.

Let's look at the predictions one by one:1. People point out that over time hurricanes have become more destructive. This is, in fact, true. This, however, is due to increased and more expensive costal development not "climate change". Pointing at Katrina is idiotic. There have been other more powerful storms (the Galveston hurricane for example) earlier in the century. When you look at economic damages they are worse over time. When you look at frequency and power of storms, there is NO TREND. In An Inconvenient Truth (AIT) - yes I watched it - Gore's "proof" is showing sattelite photos of the entire 2005 hurricane season. Pathetic. This was clearly a bad season. But guess what? 2006 and 2007 were some of the calmest seasons on record. The point is NEITHER fact proves ANYTHING. Now, even IF hurricanes were getting worse, drastic carbon reductions would be harmful… you don’t believe me do you? I say this because the economic costs of a Kyoto type protocol (which, by the way, would, if fully complied by only delay predicted warming by about 7 years over the next 100. Yeah, you read that right.) would be much more effectively spent on anti hurricane measures (limiting costal development, enforcing and strengthening existing zoning laws, protecting barrier type costal wetlands etc…).2. The predicted sea level rise by the IPCC and other expert panels is one foot over the next century. That’s right. ONE FOOT. The 20 foot rise that Gore-tard shows in his lame ass slideshow inundating NYC is pure panic and propaganda. Again, if we spend the Kyoto money on protecting low-lying areas, we can prevent over 99+% of the predicted damage. 3. Yes there WILL be an increase in heat related deaths. But again, guess what, there will be even MORE cold related deaths avoided! So if we want less temperature related deaths, global warming is GOOD.4. As economies develop, there will be less and less reliance on locally produced food. I keep coming back to this but put the Kyoto money and efforts toward economic development, relocation of threatened populations and dropping of trade barriers and agro subsidies. Shifting dry and wet areas become less important.5. This is my favorite. If you saw the Gore-gasm (AIT), you saw animated images of polar bears presumable dying because they cant find ice to stand on and just swim into oblivion. Here’s the ACTUAL data. Of appx. 6 polar bear species, 4 are increasing, 1 is stable and 1 is decreasing. Overall, polar bears have INCREASED in population. By focusing on one species and exaggerating this importance, you have classic scare-mongering and an appeal to those who can’t get past that the bears are so cute and cuddly!

Bottom line: Kyoto is a waste of money and time; drastic carbon cuts are costly and will only delay warming by a few years; the money is much better used to address actually pressing social and infrastructure issues and R+D on efficient energy generation.

Hey, funny story. You remember that report you linked to that claimed that "All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) ... show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously"

Um, except that they don't. I'll be charitable and assume the authors didn't do their homework (or didn't understand it) rather than assume that they are a lying bunch of flat-earthers. The GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) shows the exact opposite, that "The year 2007 tied for second warmest in the period of instrumental data, behind the record warmth of 2005."

Yeah, yeah, I know, you can't trust those pinheads at NASA, bunch of pointy-headed tree huggers.

Oh yeah, and the sunspot theory? Not so much:Over the whole sunspot cycle, at most, this would raise the temperature of the Earth on average by 0.2 degrees Celsius, and we are measuring increases much larger than that (not to mention the trend just keeps going up, and doesn't rise and fall with the sunspot cycle). People who try to tie global warming to the Sun have very little evidence, and what they do have does not come close to explaining the rise in temperature we see on Earth.

I know, I know, The Bad Astronomer is another liberal highly-educated physics PhD whose opinions cannot be trusted.

911 and etotheipi - I know I am a little biased but I have to say (after faithfully enjoying this blog for some time now)you two absolutely rock. It brings me such joy when you are so on target (which you never fail to be). You guys are incredibly funny and always a voice of sanity in a crazy world. Thanks for making my day. - wife of The Cat

Great summary Etotheipi! You'll never convince libs though. It's not about common sense and reasoning to them. It's about feeling good about themselves by jumping on the bandwagon. They'll believe any junk science if it allows them to blame humans and especially the U.S. for all of societies' ills.

They hate religion, and mock religious conservatives. Yet in my opinion their global warming religion requires a greater leap of faith. And their prostelytizing is worse than a Jehova's Witness on a bicycle.

I believe libs are of three varieties, 1) Stupid, 2) Guilty, 3) Arrogant (or some combination).

Anyone who believes that humans are the cause of global warming is extremely arrogant. We certainly haven't been responsible for all of the other climate changes that have occurred throughout the geological record.

Also, anyone who buys Algore's bullshit and doesn't condemn the big hypocrite prick for flying all over the place in private jets (while telling me to ride a bike to work), and heating/cooling his massive mansion (while telling me to conserve energy), and encourages me to buy "carbon offsets" from Algore's company is nothing more than a mindless cult member.

I'm all for a clean planet and energy independence, better mpg's on my 2 big SUV's, renewable sources of energy, and other things the global warming zombies encourage. But I want them for practical reasons, not because of junk science.

I don't care what Al Gore or your boyfriend at the Prius dealer tell you, it is the sun, along with a few other factors including the methane evaporating from the shit that comes out of your mouth. We will get the last laugh just as they did in the late 70's when all the "Next Ice Age" folks were made to look like fools.

"Big Hitter, the Dali"..I actually used that line a few months ago when a environmentalist pinko colleague told me about going to see the Dali Lama. I understood ya right away 911. I'll go entire days when I try to speak only in dialog from Jim Carry movies or Caddyshack. I used to say stuff from "Top Gun" but in the Navy noone noticed. You left out the best line though.

It was 22 degrees with snow in my former confederate state home this morning. I don't think its due to the leaking freon in my 88 chevy, or the gallons of isoflurane i've spilled in the last 20 years. I'm pretty sure its because its February in the Northern Hemisphere. In June it'll be 94 and humid. I wouldnt remind 94 right now.

When I was a resident I loved to do my Mr. Spock imitation whenever the surgeon asked me a question about the patients blood loss or condition, I'm afraid there aren't that many surgeon trekkies however. A buddy of mine did a great Larry King "Why do ya care?" impression that he would use at critical times in the case. He ended up going into radiology.

Surgeon"The patients Awake!!"Spock "The patient is deeply anesthetized Captain"Surgeon"Shes moving Dammit"Spock "That is merely a reflex response to diaphragmatic stimulation, I can deepen the level of Neuromuscular blockade, at the risk of prolonging emergence"Surgeon"Shut the fuck up" the cool thing, was at the Navy hospital, many of the surgeons WERE really Captains.

two things: first, you profane the blog sir by misquoting caddyshack. since you seem like the kind of honest joe i'd like to tilt a beer with the actual transcript is included below. secondly, contact me through the super secret MDOD email listed on the site. i have a feeling we either know each other or have crossed paths. comedy follows...

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a coursein the Himalayas.

A looper?

A looper. You know, a caddy, a looper... a jock. So I tell them I'm a pro jock and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama... flowing robes, grace, bald, striking.

I'm on the first tee with him.I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one. Big hitter, the Lama. Long! Into a ten-thousand foot crevice right at the base of this glacier!

Do you know what the Lama says?

"Gunga galunga. Gunga gunga la gunga."

So we finish and he's going to stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama! How about a little something,you know, for the effort?" And he says, "There will be no money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness... So I've got that going for me... which is nice."

I guess I have a tough time understanding why so many people have such a hard time believing that the tons of waste we pump into the atmosphere is NOT having any effect on anything. Certainly from an educational standpoint the "liberal fearmongers" are no better than the conservative "terror threat fearmongers" on the right.

Why is is it so hard for people to strike a balance? I agree with many points by Shadowfax but also with 911. We should cut emissions, there is no reason we can't. We should do it for the right reasons, the fear arguments just create more extremists.

So many times in science there have been arguments for one side vs the other side, yet many times it turned out that both sides were correct. One example is in Immunology, there were scientists who were called humoralists and the other side cellularists. Turns out both sides were correct to a certain degree.

To the global warming alarmists-Stop using children to scare children- Heard on the radio this morning a liitle boys voice " I'm getting a bicyle".. then a little girl goes "I'm getting increased storms and hurricaines".. and so it went back and forth about presents they were getting. Nice touch. I don't mind the Jim Jones inculcation of those "college" types and self-rightous narcissistic coastal dwellers because theoretically they are supposed to be able to sort through the shit. But kids. It is hard enough to raise kids in this America-hating God-hating social-relativistic "I'm a victim" and not resposible for my behavior or where I stick my johnson world you are trying to create. That I have to spend time straightening him out with bedtime stories from The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming so he is able to tune out the tripe he hears is insane. But I will do what I have to do.

Cat wife: thanks for the props! You should get a screen name and contribute regularly... We all would benefit from the voice of someone with the courage to marry The Cat.

Mark's Tails: "pumping waste" into the atmosphere has brought us out of the fucking stone age and into modern civilization. So, yes, "pumping waste" has changed things: it has brought alot of good and has allowed people to live longer and healthier lives. Do you suggest we should stop burning fossil fuels? We need a rigorous cost/benefit analysis of our energy use and what should be cut, and we need to develop efficient energy systems. Where I agree with you is that we need to eliminate the extremists from the argument. The sad thing is that any dissenting voice questioning the Gore-ons (that's a play on "morons" for you morons out there) is treated like a leper in the public discourse. The arguments on the Gore side of things are almost always self-righteous, apocalyptic and shrill... God I hate that fat fuck, pompous, robotic, sore-loser, cunt-faced douchbag. And remember, let's tone down the name calling.

Re Al Gore, I can't take an obese guy with a private jet and a mansion seriously. Just from his fatness he exhales twice the CO2 of the textbook 70 kg dude. Total hypocrisy, just like how he let Tipper ban dirty words from broadcast TV, then tongue kisses her before a nationwide audience. Shes sorta chubby too.

This has nothing to do with the Al Gore nut jobs or Caddy Shack, but since we're quoting guy movies I'll throw this one in for everybody's amusement... hehehehehehehe

Rory? Yeah I know Rory. He's not to be underestimated, you've got to look past the hair and the cute, cuddly thing - it's all a deceptive facade. A few nights ago Rory's Roger iron's rusted, so he's gone to the local battle-cruiser to catch the end of his footer. Nobody is watching the custard so he turns the channel over. A fat man's north opens and he wanders over and turns the Liza over. 'Now fuck off and watch it somewhere else.' Rory knows claret is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game; so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action, then he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub and switches back to his footer. 'That's fucking it,' says the guy. 'That's fucking what' says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil.

dearest "'cat's wife". it's been too long. we need to bring the crews together soon. please tell the 'cat to post more as he has quite a fan base. kissess and hugs.

dear middle-of-the-road 'climate change' guy. i don't want to talk about your points because i think etotheipi addressed them. i do want to talk about your middle stance.

i think that one of the poisons america faces is from a generation of well-educated triangulators. what i mean by this is that within the ivory tower there is no longer such a thing as 'right'or 'wrong'. it's quite 18th century you see.

so, folks who have bought this (and it's a lie) will take two sides of an issue and plant themselve squarely in the middle or jump in with the consensus. this would be fine if there were not right and wrong answers but since there are right and wrong answers it's a slippery slope to hell on earth.

example. let's imagine an academic discipline taking on the trappings of a hard science but being motivated at it's core, not by reproducible findings arrived at by the scientific method, but by, let's say, marxist ideology.

let's then imagine that this political philosophy or religion is able to convince the triangulators that it has an equal spot at the table, say, with physics and chemistry, and that it's 'science' is just as exact and reproducible.

then let's assume that when it is NOT in fact, a science like chemistry or physics (and is more like divination based on skewed and unreliable data with some emotional hysteria and self hate thown in) the purveyors of this 'science' fall back on the decidedly fearful statement, 'but what if it IS true?? we've got to do SOMETHING???'

now, this 'science' based on retrospective analyses of faulty data has move the triangulators away from a sensible position to one which is emotional rather than logical.

if i'm not mistaken, it was under such a climate of fear and bad science that a few infamous regimes came to power. of course, that's assuming that history is in fact reliable and that hitler and stalin actually lived. it's all relative right?

I have to say guys,I read this blog daily and it, hold on, moves me. Wait a minute, maybe it gives me a movement who knows. Either way I love it. I'm not in the medical field, but it certainly does take a lot of stress out of my usual routine. I guess you could say I've been a long time listener, first time caller. I also want to say that I'm related to cat's wife. Don't want to let the "cat" out of the bag though. Keep the good one's coming!

Mark: I can't even begin to understand the point you're trying to make by comparing Global Warming to the Terror threat.

Global warming is conjecture based on some of the scientific community taking about 100 years of recorded data, and extrapolating those data to try and make assertions about thousands of years of the earth's climate history and future. I think this is pretty silly and short sighted. As shadowfax said...we ought to understand statistics better than that...and we do. If you show me a study of 100 hypertensive adults and try to extrapolate that data to the millions of people who suffer from the various forms of hypertension. I wouldn't even waste time reading the study because there's too little data to make it relevant. I look at global warming with the same deal of skepticism.

You say that you can't understand why "so many people have such a hard time believing that the tons of waste we pump into the atmosphere is NOT having any effect on anything". I DO believe it's having an effect, but not on the global weather. I'm all for a clean and beautiful planet, but for aesthetic and practical reasons. Somehow the left makes a simplistic assumption that if you don't believe in global warming, you are a supporter of pollution...stupid assertion.

I resent my kids being taught this junk at school. I resent companies using the "Green" word to market themselves. I teach my kids the facts and fallacies of the global warming debate, and I refuse to buy anything that's marketed to me as "Green" because I'm not stupid enough to fall for the mass hysteria marketing.

As to your comparison to the terror "hysteria". I seem to remember witnessing a car bomb at the World Trade Center in 1993. Then there was the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (which Louis Freeh's excellent book pins directly on Iranian government). I also recall hearing about bombing of embassys in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. In the year 2000, there was an attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and I have seen some video of something which happened on 9/11/2001 where planes deliberately crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and attempted to destroy the US Capital as well. I would hardly call the threat and concern about terrorism "hysteria from the right".

I would also point out that it's not Bush's policies that have led to terrorism against Americans. The majority of the attacks happened during the Clinton Administration. One would argue that if Clinton had actually responded to the attacks as he promised after each one, we might have prevented the subsequent ones. Sure, it's conjecture. But no more so than the global warming conjecture.

Finally, I'll take Global Warming more seriously when the people pushing it take it seriously. Algore can't possibly take his own propaganda seriously while he continues to waste more energy and produce more "greenhouse gasses" in a month than most Americans create in years. Most of the politicians and ignorant Hollywood "elites" who promote this crap continue to be driven around in in their limosines and fly between their homes in private jets.

I can't swear to it's validity, but I heard a story about Lori David (wife of Larry David of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame) who is a high priestess in the church of global warming. The story goes that she drove her Prius to the airport to board her private jet to fly to Paris for a day to shop!

It's the hippocracy of the global warming evangelists that assure me that either a) they don't believe in it either, or b) they believe they are just a better class of person, and thus the rules don't apply to them. Either way...I ain't buying it. But I do believe in terrorism.

I am not saying terrorism doesn't exist. As you point out terrorism has been around for a long time, but for many Americans it didn't exist until after Sept. 11 and for many more it became even a bigger issue in 2003-2004. Why, because people created an air of fear, despite the fact that you are more likely to die in an automobile accident than a terrorist attack. The same can be said of some people creating fear around global warming. That was my point, fear as a tactic for change.

The trends in temperature change and the changes in our atmosphere seem convincing, at least to the vast majority of scientists who are paid to study it for a living.

Whether or not it actually exists can probably be debated until we are both dead. The data being used is over a short period of time given the actual age of our planet.

But lets be reasonable, What is wrong with limiting emissions from factories? What's wrong if my car gets 50 MPG instead of 13 MPG? What's wrong if we limit our dependence on the Middle East? What's wrong if we seek alternatives to the Billion dollar profits of the Oil companies?

Now, it seems as though people are arguing this point because if they agree with this type of change then they are admitting to a belief in Global Warming.

I to am sick of the whole media storm and fear mongering of the alarmists, any alarmist. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't take precautions against terrorism, nor does it mean we should give up seeking ways to improve our life even more after leaving the stone age (etotheipi I think we agree on more points than you think)

To hell with the evangelists, to hell with the hypocrites, to hell with the fear-mongerer's.

Perhaps I am a naive optimist, perhaps a cynical pessimist. Perhaps I need to take a writing class.

But that is my side and how I choose to defend. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Mark's: 1. "you are more likely to die in an automobile accident than a terrorist attack" - True. But if they get ahold of a nuclear or biologic agent, this may change. Even one more American dead because of those motherfuckers is one too many. We shouldn't be terrified of them, we should be smart and fight the sons of bitches where they live.

2. "The data being used is over a short period of time given the actual age of our planet" - EXACTLY. Hence the arrogance and idiocy of believing we can make long term predictions based on it.

3. "What is wrong with limiting emissions from factories? What's wrong if my car gets 50 MPG instead of 13 MPG? What's wrong if we limit our dependence on the Middle East? What's wrong if we seek alternatives to the Billion dollar profits of the Oil companies?" - As I've said twice before, NOTHING. What we have here is failure to communicate. I agree with all of this completely, but for practical reasons, not because of "global warming". Also, we should be drilling for oil in ANWR. Libs talk about the "pristine wilderness" of ANWR, then dishonestly show pictures of beautiful mountains and wildlife. The area of ANWR that they want to drill is <1% of the land there, and is nothing but frozen tundra all around. It's no where near where they show the beautiful photos.

Libs talk about energy independence and encourage us to use less coal. However, they won't let us build nuclear power plants, oil refineries, drill offshore, drill in ANWR, etc. The royalty of the Democrat party, the Kennedys won't even support a wind farm planned offshore at Martha's Vineyard. Another example of how they only address problems with words, but not actions. True hypocrits.

I have finally given in. Mrs. Cat and I are heating our home by burning my feces (huge pile today-not her dainty little ones). The kids don't like the smell, but tough. If it is good enough for the Reverend Al Gore of the Church of the Holy Global Warming Green Thingy, it is good enough for me.

Here is a quote from a modern classic:

You guys got somethin' to say to me? Why don't you say it in the microphone. I got a backup mike right here. Check one two, testing, testing. Yup, they both working and guess what? they don't like no feed back, what's up?

Cat, you're Joe Dirty. Especially with that feces thingy, she is a bit dainty. Props though, ingenious method of heating that ginormous household. All those damn kiddies you have biting your ankles every night. Here's one one for the holy..."Hell I can say "meow". I can say "moo", for twenty bucks I'll call the guy a chickenfucker." Good luck, all. e^I(3.14) I challenge thee.

Thank you for the Joe Dirt reference. It is arrogant to assume that people have enough power to change the weather and that a "warming" trend or "cooling" trend is our fault. Our air is significantly cleaner than it was in the 70's, one or two volcanoes can spew more chemicals out than all of our "waste". We've been told up here that whales aren't coming this far north due to colder water temperatures. We do have growing glaciers - that even threaten some villages. If you can't accurately tell me the weather three days out please don't tell me I'm going to be swimming in 50 years because all the polar ice cap is gone. thanks MDOD for spreading the truth.

Well said manda. Something I saw the other day gave me pause. The stat was that it would take 300,000 trees living their entire natural lives to process one days worth of CO2 produced by a large coal fired electrical plant.

I point that out not to disprove my own points above. As I've said, we need to continue to do better in cleaning up our air to decrease allergies and respiratory illnesses.

I point it out to say that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter whether I use those $8 flourescent "green" light bulbs instead of the $0.50 ones. I'm not pissin' in the ocean to try and change the pH.

Hey, long time lurker. Love your blog even when I disagree I still can respect all of your opinions so at the risk of getting my a** whooped here is my two cents.

I am as likely to get my information and opinions from a bunch of political phonies, as I would take medical advice from my garbage man. That being said, as I read through all these comments, film quotes aside, it seems to me that most are basing opinions that have been drawn on political lines, which to me is sad.

Erdoc, don’t tell me you have never made a medical decision based on the information you had at the time. Sometimes you’re right but sometimes your wrong, but you do the best you can with the information you have. I believe that is true with most physicians and I also believe that is true of most scientists. So why not leave the Cherry picked data and hot air to the Gore’s and Bush’s of the world.

Manda, yes it is true, volcanos have been implicated in climate change in the Earth’s history. So how is that different from the chemicals spewing forth from our factories, cars and coal fired electrical plants? It just takes longer for the effect to occur, that’s how.

Mark’s tails, I would add to hell with the liberals, to hell with the conservatives, to hell with the extremists anywhere but sadly I think that would account for most of our population.

Nurse K, sorry about your missed party but I think you missed Mark’s point. “Mean people SUCK”

Anon.: If you got that Barfly quote without a web search, I am impressed.

That said: yes, you have to make a decision based on the information available and try not to let political or any other bias enter the equation. That's the whole problem with the Gore zombies and what drives me nuts. (get ready for an overgeneralization to make a point) Liberals have latched onto a very questionable 'generational mission': cut carbon emmissions at any expense and if you disagree, you are a right wing oil tycoon earth destroying scumbag. If you are going to do something that will have a major negative impact on the world economy, you better be smart about it. Kyoto is a very expensive and minimally effective approach to a problem that is, first of all, very debatable as to its magnitude (if any) and second probably best addressed more cheaply and effectively through R+D and other approaches I metioned above.

I have no political agenda here except to point out the left's misguided, arrogant and condescending approach to climate change. Is the right guilty of similar actions with other issues? Of course. Pointing that out does not diminish the propagandizing and scare-mongering that has made people stupid and slavishly bound to a Gore-ified version of global warming.

911. Kudos to you for getting "Waiting for Guffman", however, I took it down because I got it wrong...It was "Nothing ever happens on Mars" that stupid song they sing in the play that makes me cry from laughter every time I watch it. "I buy most of her clooothes."

Welcome manda, if you are who I think you are...and you really couldn't be anyone else with a name like that. Sounds like a snake.

My environmental horror story, I've always been a frustrated mechanic, doing my own oil changes and minor repairs when possible. I believed in q 3 month oil/filter changes, back in the days before synthetic oil. Unfortunately, there was no convenient place to dispose of used oil and filters in the Mid 80s. By the end of medical school I had accumulated quite a few used oil filters and milk jugs with old oil. I decided one big pile was better than 2 little piles, and dumped everything in a dumpster on the undergraduate campus. The next morning I noticed a swarm of police cars at the same dumpster, not looking for drugs or a disposed body, but investigating my PH30 filters and 50 qts of oil.

Welcome out of the closet anon...or wherever you've been lurking. No a$$ kicking intended since this has been a good discussion.

Once again, Etotheipi nailed the response, so there's not a lot to add. The reason it seems to break along "partisan" lines is because there's no room in the libs world for anyone who doesn't snap to attention and thrust their hand high whilst yelling "Heil Gore" at the mere mention of "Global Warming".

Sure, we make assumptions all day long based on limited info...that's what ER Docs do. But the difference is that I don't treat my opinions as absolute facts and I tell patients if they're not better to follow up with their PCP. I explain to them that my ED workup is limited in scope.

On the other hand, the Global Warming nuts follow the dogma and insist that we believe it since it can't be proven.

Once again, there's nothing wrong with the PRACTICAL aspects of a cleaner planet, more MPG on my SUV, energy independence, etc. But I'm not trading in my big nice SUV for one of those little POS hybrid prick cars, and I'm not buying $8 lightbulbs to "save the planet". And I resent GW being taught as fact. It simply isn't, it's a theory.

I was in the car listening to talk radio when Sen. Jim Battin of La Quinta, CA came on talking about he'd bought carbon credits after some of his detractors gave him a ration for driving a gas guzzler. He decided that this now entitled him to drive in the carpool lane along with the Prius set. Driving guilt-free is how he put it. He went on to talk about his proposed legislation that would allow “polluting, flashy, fuel-sucking” vehicles to drive in car pool lanes if their owners buy carbon offset credits. His tongue was firmly planted in his cheek when he allowed as how it would fail to pass.

Ok, but you could still trade the SUV so we can breathe better and not have to look at the orangey cloud suspended over most downtowns.But maybe you live in an area where the bovine poulation per sqm is higher than the human population, in which case... enjoy!:-)

Um, sorry, but who exactly are these "Libs" that you all hate so much? A broken watch is right twice a day, right? So despicable as you find them, isn't it just possible that those evil arrogant stupid Libs might actually have a point?

But then I'm not american, and I don't understand your politics. It is too bad that an issue like this has become political though, and something to be decided by your Libness or non-Libness. Rather than something basic like science.

Me, I just hope that should I come into your care, you follow the science rather than the politically approved anti-Lib treatment.

dear anonymous, i guess you read only part of the post. our point is that the 'global warming' or 'climate change' movement is about politics and not science. in fact, it's a religion for some folks. hope you can get your citizenship someday.cheers.

Ok, but you could still trade the SUV so we can breathe better and not have to look at the orangey cloud suspended over most downtowns.

You miss the point. This is a CARPOOL lane. Carpool lanes were pushed on us traffic-clogged Californians to punish those of us who can't or don't carpool for whatever reasons. While we're stuck in traffic, that one blessed lane that my tax dollars helped fund is used exclusively for car poolers, and they whiz by without a care in the world.

That means that even the gas-guzzling, carbon-eating behemoth that you recommend everyone abandon is also okay as long as there are two or more people within that vehicle. Since this is about traffic, how does allowing a Prius in the CARPOOL lane with only one person make sense? It doesn't matter if they make the flowers grow and angels sing, they don't belong in the car pool lane - no matter how politically correct they are.

Because of this obvious inequity of the rules, Sen. Battin decided to showcase the idiocy of Sacramento.

"While we're stuck in traffic, that one blessed lane that my tax dollars helped fund is used exclusively for car poolers, and they whiz by without a care in the world."

That's the exactly the point.It is called: incentive.Three people use one car instead of three, they are recompensed with a faster lane.

True, people take the carpool lanes for Le Mans racetrack and true, a Prius (or a bike) with one passenger can access the carpool lane and this makes no sense.That does not change the fact that SUVs, in whichever lane they find themselves, are a factor in large cities traffic pollution.I am not talking about Global Warming or Cooling or the price of crude, I just would like that orange cloud to disappear...

dear amy, what fuel does an SUV burn? please define SUV. does a limo burn the same fuel?

here is an equation for you...

gasoline(hydrocarbon)+ oxidizing agent (fire)= water and C02

i drive a 4x4 earth destroyer. when the drunk crashes into me i will be safe along with my family. if i crash into someone else i will be safe along with my family. i also have the added benefit of being able to tailgate folks in priuses and scare the shit out of them PLUS i know that just seeing me in my monster SUV gives prius drivers insomnia. i am only half kidding.

here's the real question. what the fuck is the difference to you between an SUV and a sports car. they both get the same mileage, they both are inefficient, one sacrifices safety and fuel economy for speed and one sacrifices fuel economy and speed for safety.

I lived in SoCal for four (glorious) years. I "feel your pain" on the carpool lanes thing. The carpool lanes pissed me off to no end! They do NOTHING to alleviate the traffic congestion because they motivate almost no one to actually carpool. The people using the carpool lanes are people who happen to have two or more people in the car anyway. I was stoked when I had my daughter because it meant that I could use the carpool lanes anytime I wanted!

There was nothing more frustrating than sitting motionless on the 5, looking at the empty carpool lane. What a waste of @^#$-ing money. Instead of five lanes, we could have been using six and everyone could have gotten where they were going a little faster. Ugggh.

Amy: I DO in fact live in an area where cows are more plentiful than people. Sorry 'bout your orange haze. That's one of many reasons that I moved to the country. I love the fresh air.

Anon: "isn't it just possible that those evil arrogant stupid Libs might actually have a point?" - No it isn't.

A "lib" or liberal is a person who looks at issues with their feelings rather than with intellect and common sense. They want government to solve all of societies' ills rather than believing in individual or personal responsibility. They want "the rich" to pay huge taxes in order to distribute all kinds of services to the poor because it makes them feel better about themselves and makes them feel noble. Nevermind that this is exactly why the poor stay poor. It's compassionate to throw money at them.

I point out however that studies show that conservatives are much more generous in charitable giving. Libs want the government to give away other people's tax money...rather than their own.

Barak Obama is a good example of liberalism. He has a huge following because he's charismatic, nice-looking, and makes lots of general touchy-feely promises. However none of the people who flock to him seem to care that he has yet to be specific about any of his programs. He sounds good, he looks good, and therefore voting for him feels good and this makes liberals happy. Nevermind that his promises thus far amount to over $1 trillion in new spending with no plan to cut spending in other areas.

Conservatives believe in the Constitution and the values within. They have nothing against helping the poor, but don't believe that living on the government dime forever should be a way of life. They believe that Government does very few things well, therefore smaller government and low taxes are a cornerstone of conservative beliefs.

With the global warming alarmists, the liberals jump on the bandwagon to assert that it's a fact despite conflicting scientific data. They want government to tax my SUV, they want government to sign the awful Kyoto treaty (see Etotheipi's posts above), they want government to slap fines on evil corporations.

The "carbon credit" idea is ludicrous. It's like the old Catholic Church and the purchase of absolutions. It's OK for Algore to polute more than any 10 regular folks as long as his company plants a few trees to "offset" his CO2 production. What a crock.

"Me, I just hope that should I come into your care, you follow the science" - of course we do. If the science is conflicting (such as with global warming), I discuss this with the patient (they seldom understand). But in addition to using scientific data, I also rely heavily on common sense to treat patients.

Ana & Dantes mom: Drive in the carpool lane! Where would America be if everyone obeyed signs? Drinking from segregrated faucets and NBA basketball consisting of slow white guys shooting set shots. It starts with the government telling you what lane to drive in(the idea originated in Nazi germany)once you accept that, of course its ok to send violators to work camps and test new medical technology on them. I drove in Marylands HOV lanes for 4 years with only 1 $72 ticket that didn't even add points to your driving record. When you figure out how much time you save, its well worth it. And the pissed off looks from the cattle waiting in the regular lane traffic jam? Priceless

Thanks for the sympathy about my orange cloud... :-)I really don't have a problem with SUVs in the country but

Dear 911Doc,

If city dwellers drove smaller cars, there would be less emissions, less fuel wasted and probably less serious car accidents. I once went through my SUV phase. It lasted exactly 6 months. They are cumbersome, they do not go around bends too well, they are very thirsty - it was not a hybrid - and I really could not justify driving one on concrete every day.Enjoy you 4X4 innihilator, I will enjoy my minuscule 35mpg ride that passes you in the bends and zooms right past you in the lane you were trying to access but are too slow to move into. I am the gnat, you are the behemoth and you can't catch me. Good luck trying to tailgate me :-)

If, like ErDoc85, cows are your closest neigbors, then disregard my above rant and, by all means enjoy your gigantic 4X4. I hope there are plenty of dirt roads to have fun on on your days off.

nice and spunky amy, i love it! i will definitely not tailgate YOU. i too live in the country and find a whole bunch of convenient uses for my pick-em-up truck. i think i really confuse the enviro-whackos when they see me hauling my kayak in the back. got a get a gun rack and peace sticker too, that will make their heads explode.

Not in my book. Not when they've used my tax dollars to create a lane I'll rarely have the ability to use. It's political social engineering, and few do it better than the Left Coast.

I'm an author and a publisher, so this means that I travel the freeway at odd hours to attend events either for my own book or one of my authors. And whether I'd love another rider or not, there isn't anyone going my way.

Does Gov. Turncoat Schwartzy and his lot care that I'm unable to use this lane? No way. They just want to be sure that we sell lots of books so they can tax us more to pay for their entitlement boondogels. If they really wanted to help traffic, they'd make that an additional lane, not an exclusive lane for the privileged few. And a Prius with one driver does not qualify.

Yes, you'd like the orange skies to disappear. We all would. But where do you get the idea that SUVs are the cause? Please. California has one of the strictest smog rules in the country. I'm not saying you can eat off my tailpipe, but I will not accept that SUVs are responsible for LA's orange skies. It's become socially acceptable to throw a torch on anything that smacks of big and expensive, and you've fallen into the trap.

Lastly, you're confusing the purpose behind the carpool lane. Sacramento sold this idiotic idea to us weak-minded Californians as a traffic issue, not smog.

Its sorta funny that it was my 2 formative teen years in liberal California where I studied under a Highschool science teacher who believed in creationism and that the worlds oil supply was unlimited. The theory was that their was too much oil for it to have come from dinosaurs, and that oil was continually being produced deep under the earths surface. I admit, in the 80's when gas was 80 cents a gallon I thought he might be on to something

I get the idea from the fact that even if the pollution produced by the SUVS and similar size vehicles is only 1/2 % higher than that of smaller cars, it becomes huge when multipled by all the numbers of minivans, SUVS etc. that gather on the same city freeways at rush hour, twice a day, everyday for hours.

As for your other questions, I cannot answer them because:

A/I have no interest in politics so I won't take the bait,B/Even though I have an orange cloud, I don't live in California. C/ Our carpool lanes here were created for traffic relief as well as pollution relief.

In defense of Private Turkstra, the draft had only been ended a few years before, and Jimmy Carter had just started draft registration again..I remember guys in my highschool panicking because they thought the draft was back.

I did occasionally, but (Lynn, correct me if I'm wrong) the fine for carpool violations posted on the freeway signs in Orange County is $341 (I always wondered how they came up with such a random number. It couldn't just be $350 or something.) We couldn't afford to live there as it was. I couldn't break the budget with tickets, so I was stuck with the cattle.

Your comments are hilarious. I hope the docs on this blog invite you to be a regular poster. It would only make this kick-ass blog better.

Hey Lynn, have you ever driven north on the 5 just past the 55 during rush hour? Have you ever noticed that the car pool lane is actually STOPPED and the regular lanes almost never are? And if you're in the carpool lane (or HOV, rather) you can't get out because it's on it's only separate section of road.

Sorry, I know this post isn't really about carpool lanes. Someone mentioned it, and it struck a nerve.

I did occasionally, but (Lynn, correct me if I'm wrong) the fine for carpool violations posted on the freeway signs in Orange County is $341 (I always wondered how they came up with such a random number. It couldn't just be $350 or something.) We couldn't afford to live there as it was. I couldn't break the budget with tickets, so I was stuck with the cattle.

Your comments are hilarious. I hope the docs on this blog invite you to be a regular poster. It would only make this kick-ass blog better.

Hey Lynn, have you ever driven north on the 5 just past the 55 during rush hour? Have you ever noticed that the car pool lane is actually STOPPED and the regular lanes almost never are? And if you're in the carpool lane (or HOV, rather) you can't get out because it's on it's only separate section of road.

Sorry, I know this post isn't really about carpool lanes. Someone mentioned it, and it struck a nerve.

K: As to your comment about Republicans and Democrats...Sadly, you are correct. The fact that the Republicans got drunk on power and lost their conservative principles resulted in their much deserved losses in 2006.

(Lynn, correct me if I'm wrong) the fine for carpool violations posted on the freeway signs in Orange County is $341

I’m ashamed to admit that I have no idea – you may be right. Odd how I pass the damn signs every day yet they don’t sink in. Maybe it’s because I know the carpool lane is beyond my reach most of the time. I might try arguing with a cop that my book has great characters in it, so I should qualify. Makes as much sense as a Prius gaining entry. But, alas, I somehow believe they’d find little humor in my idea.

Your comments are hilarious. I hope the docs on this blog invite you to be a regular poster. It would only make this kick-ass blog better.

Aw, g’won with you – you’re making me blush. Admittedly, the M.D.O.D. boys are the jam in my jelly doughnut, but I’m not a doc – though I do write about them at great length in my novels.

Hey Lynn, have you ever driven north on the 5 just past the 55 during rush hour? Have you ever noticed that the car pool lane is actually STOPPED and the regular lanes almost never are?

That’s because the carpool lane is clogged with carpoolers trying to get on to two different freeway interchanges. It sucks stale Twinkie cream, and it’s the only time I feel like sticking my tongue out at them and waving buh-bye.

Ana & Dantes Mom, $341 is pretty harsh, my college DUI didn't cost that much. The Maryland first time HOV violation fine was under $100, but escalated rapidly for subsequent offenses, still if you prorate it over a year its less than a dollar a day.